Thursday, September 9, 2010

not just a place...


the price fam hit the road to corsicana, texas for labor day. it is a place that i hold near and dear to my heart. the home of my great grandparents...gran & grandma "biscuit". they are no longer present on this earth...but they are very much still present at this place.

being there was like stepping back in time. the smells. the sights. the sounds. it's like nothing has changed at all...

it was just so surreal.

there are chairs that have been there since i was a little girl. you wouldn't think that chairs would mean so much...but they do. a lot.

i think the thing that i loved the most about the weekend was getting to share those memories with my little girls and my husband. for lots of years, this place has been just that to them...a place. i would talk about "the farm" and all the special things about it...but it was just words to them. now it has meaning. and that means something to me.

when i was growing up, this farm was fully functioning...meaning my gran grew just about everything we ate while we were there! onions, potatoes, corn, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, peas, chicken...and that's just some. it was truly amazing. he wore long sleeves, pants, and steel toe boots every single day. he worked tirelessly. and he loved endlessly. he was, and will always be, one of the kindest men i have ever known.
sweet gran

"biscuit" was famous for other things...like...biscuits!!!! she was a persnickety little lady...very unassuming and very sweet. she loved having the whole family to visit...but i really think she may have liked us leaving a hair more! ha! she had lots of pretties that usually had to be displaced in order to sleep everyone! i loved being in the bathroom after she got ready in the morning and smelling her dove soap. i loved the house coats that she wore. i loved the way she crossed her legs to the side.
"biscuit" making biscuits with brooke & me

i just loved everything about those two precious people.

my dad's family is H.U.G.E. and when everyone gets together it's a bit of a circus. my dad coined the term "defensive eating" and that's just what has to happen if you are going to get a smidge of the deliciousness that would be chocolate ice cream, pound cake, orange sherbet, peach ice cream, sugar cookies, etc. it makes me hungry and nervous even thinking about it now...i'm always afraid i won't get my fill...and that feeling is 33 years in the making!!!! i could use another large cup of chocolate ice cream right about now!

it was so fun seeing ella, maddie, & ava swinging from the same tree that all my many cousins and i swung from many years ago. it was fun to see the same ticking mattresses, sitting on fences, being used on a hayride that we used many years ago. it was neat to bathe my daughters in the same well house that i was bathed in when i was their age. it was neat to be the family with the baby that got to sleep in the little room outside. it was neat to shuck corn with my maddie just like i used to do. it was neat to travel the same roads on the hay ride that i traveled as a little person.

everything was neat.

the beauty of this place isn't just on the surface and it can't just be seen with the eye. it is felt with a heart that has loved and been loved on every square inch of the property.

i am so thankful that there are memories that are now part of the present and not just things of the past. i'm thankful for every single one.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more gran was my best friend in the world and the dove soap smell I still love to this day. Grandma was quite a woman I miss them both so much.

Lisa said...

This made me cry. So sweet and exactly right. I'm so glad your girls loved it. It's still so special and just one more conversation with Gran and Bessie would be so nice. Love you

Emily said...

What a great post, Mere. My eyes filled up with tears as I read it. What a treat for your present family to get such an amazing taste of the past.